More success followed with Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981), which is set after World War III. The antihero Max falls in with a group of people at an oil refinery and defends them from a motorcycle gang. Miller then took a break from Mad Max to work…

In its 1981 sequel, The Road Warrior, Max had been reduced to a drifter, albeit one willing to help a small community resist attacks by bandits. Gibson played Max for a third and final time in 1985’s Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, in which Max tries to protect a group…

title The Road Warrior [1982]), Gibson became an international star. He subsequently established himself as a top box office draw with Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) and the action-packed Lethal Weapon series, which began in 1987. In addition, he earned critical praise for more serious fare,…